Optimization process is the one of the most crucial part of optical design due to it’s including weight, size and performance parameters. Current developments in optical and electronical technology reduce the size and weight of these systems and improve image performance. In this study, optical design of small diameter dual mode imaging infrared system will be summarized. Optical design is including prisms to provide wide field of regard which are rotated in roll axis to scan area. Optical design is also including a filter to split long-wave infrared and mid-wave infrared spectrums from each other. At the end optical design results and analysis will be given.
Dual field of view optical systems provide search, detect and observation abilities with wide and narrow field of views. These systems provide dual field of view by changing the effective focal length with moving a lens or lens group mechanically to exact positions. In this paper, previously proposed methodology is used to change effective focal length without any mechanical movement. This methodology relies on ionization of fluid with voltage difference to change the refractive index which is patented in 2022.
In missile applications, new counter measure methods are getting more complex. To discriminate and detect counter measure and to understand target signature from scene is getting harder. Because of all that concerns, using triple-mode seeker for a system solution is a good solution for system total performance. By this way, tridifferent wavelength could be used for same system and same scene. In this study, triple mode system’s optical designs have been made for mid-wave infra-red imaging, long-wave infra-red imaging and short-wave infrared imaging. Optical designs performances have been illustrated in simulation results. Finally, conceptual design of triple mode seeker will be summarized.
In this paper, different optical designs, which are composed of different LWIR optical materials, are utilized for passive athermalization and their performance in athermalization are analyzed. The optical designs are carried out by preserving the athermal property as well as keeping the image quality at higher levels within the working temperature between –40 °C and +60 °C. Our designs consist of two different infrared optical elements to maintain the focus positions as stable as possible within the working temperature. The passive athermalization process begins with the calculation of athermalization conditions of candidate material properties. By taking into account these conditions, athermal material pairs are chosen. The optical design begins with an optimization process using paraxial optics. In order to reduce aberrations such as coma, astigmatism, spherical and chromatic, aspherical surfaces are utilized during the optimization process. At the end of the design phase, the performance of different configurations of athermal optical material pairs, which are enclosed by aluminum alloy housing material, are presented.
Warfare environment get more complex day by days by developing technology. This improvements and complexity cause missile performance degradation. To eliminate these negative aspects, more technological and more complex systems and algorithm are used in new generation missile. Dual mode or triple mode seekers are produced to resolve these problems. More effective and more reliable system can be achievable by combination of different kind of working principle. In this study, cost effective imaging and signal processing solution combination is reviewed. Its conceptual design criteria are assumed in system level and both designs of systems are illustrated. In imaging part, uncooled long wave infrared is chosen for both cost effective and compactness. In signal processing part, four quadrant semi-active seeker is chosen for same reason. Finally, their performance results are shown.
In missile applications, countermeasures are one of critical aspects to be handled. New technological improvements affect missile performance because of effectiveness of countermeasures. To eliminate countermeasures’ effects, different mode seeker will be need. Two or more different modes in seeker increase immunity to different kind of countermeasures. Because of these reasons, two different modes are chosen for seeker design of this work. One of them is millimeter wave and other one is four quadrant. By using this two different seeker concept, weakness of individual system will be eliminated by each other. In this work millimeter wave and four quadrant system range performance will be calculated and optomechanical design will be shown with respect to some sample missile criteria. After that seeker performance of system will be compared with other dual mode seekers.
In missile applications, decision of optical design is critical for system performance. Many kind of optical solution can be chosen with respect to missile criteria. However, some kinds of limitation coming from system criteria eliminate some of optical design alternative. Also validation of optical design is another subject. Design results from simulation should satisfy reality. Some parameters such as modulation transfer function, noise equivalent temperature difference and field of view should be tested for optomechanical module performance. Also, module range performance capability with automatic target acquisition algorithm match with test results. Starting from the design phase to production results, all process should be tested. To achieve that simulation results from the programs are compared in laboratory environment. Finally laboratory results are compared with missile criteria.
In missile application, seeker performance is directly affected by stabilization performance of gimbal. Since missile high velocity, imaging part of seeker is affected from vibration profile. This vibration cause blurring in image part. To understand response of seeker, some theoretical gimbal modeling for a conceptual seeker is done. Also optomechanical design is finished and produced with respect to conceptual seeker. For different stabilization levels under vibration profile, performance of the automatic target acquisition algorithm performance is tested. Finally, laboratory results are compared with model results.
Beam steering optical arrangement needs less volume envelope. However because of the optical path difference
and other aberration factor, image will be disrupted. Performance of optical design will be affected from these
kinds of aberrations. In missile applications, small dimension is important for aerodynamic effects. Using regular
gimbal approach increase dimension, but using beam steering method in missile application instead of regular
gimbal approach has beneficial in aerodynamically. However performance of system will be affected. Because
of that reason two Risley prisms are produced and optical system design is tested at laboratory condition. Change
of MTF is measured and its automatic target acquisition performance is measured with respect to Risley prisms’
position. Finally results are compared with theoretical results.
In missile applications, countermeasures are one of reasons for enhanced rate of false alarm. Aiming to o decrease false alarm rate, algorithms are used but it would be useless for some kind of countermeasures. Adding benefits of two or more wavelengths to seeker subsystem makes overall system more robust to countermeasures. In this study, first critical missile parameters will be given. Then; proposed short-wave infra-red and four quadrant method will be discussed. In addition; two different optical designs have been made for short-wave infra-red imaging and four quadrant systems. Optical designs performances have been illustrated in simulation results. Furthermore, opto-mechanical design of the dual mode seeker is illustrated. Finally, conceptual design of dual mode seeker will be summarized.
Compact seeker design is important in missile application. Main reason is the challenging allocation of drag coefficient reduction, performance/mass ratio and flight motor performance. All of these factors are tried to be optimized in an iterative manner for a couple of periods. However, because of the disturbing nature of the vibration of missiles, gimbals and vibration isolation/suppression methods are popular. Depending on the frequency of the vibration, old fashioned gimbal approaches can end up in an increase of the missile diameter to embody complex mechanisms to eliminate vibration effect. New proposed methods are vulnerable to jitter on image. In order to keep the diameter of the missile at certain level, complex gimbal subsystems can be removed from seeker. Not to be affected from the jitter on image, piezo actuator system can be used. In this study; an optical design and production of the camera module is conducted. Performance of the camera module is analyzed in simulation and tested in laboratory. After that, target is simulated in the collimator system to illustrate the performance of the module. Later, camera module performance is tested under the vibration test profile with automatic target acquisition algorithm to compare results of the system objectively. Finally, analyzes are performed to show piezo actuator effects on vibration test profile.
Non-uniformity of mid-wave infrared focal plane arrays (FPAs) is a critical factor affecting the detection range of infrared imaging systems, especially in detecting small and dim objects. Moreover, false alarm probability of the system gets higher as the non-uniformity of the FPA increases. Therefore, to improve the performance of infrared imaging systems, non-uniformity of the array should be corrected. Conventionally, to achieve this goal, either scene or calibration based non-uniformity correction (NUC) methodologies have been used. To achieve reasonable performance, scene based NUC techniques may require an impractical amount of time considering the operational duration of high speed platforms. On the other hand, calibration based NUC performance degrades as scene temperature observed by infrared imaging systems of high speed platforms varies. The method presented in this work relies on multiple NUC tables to compensate for the temperature variations in the scene. To compare this method with conventional methods, standard deviation of the NUC images and target detection probability were used as metrics. NUC images were obtained by capturing images with an infrared imaging module. To obtain images with target, either synthetic or pinhole target images were added to the non-uniformity corrected background images. According to these metrics, we found that multiple point NUC correction method is superior to the conventional calibration based method using single NUC table.
Tactical missiles have seeker capability to detect and tract targets. Because of the seekers’ field of view, detonation range of the missiles has a limit. Mostly this limit is far away from the desired distance since seeker’s blind spot. To increase missile’s effectiveness against target, laser proximity sensor is used. Where the seeker’s blind spot distance is arrived, the proximity sensor will be used until its minimum distance limits. In this study, missile parameters are assumed and minimum detonation distance for seeker will be found. Effectiveness of warhead at this distance will be calculated. Later parameters of proximity sensor are determined. Optical design and modeling of the proximity sensor will be conducted and minimum distance of it will be determined. Warhead effectiveness of this minimum distance will be given. Finally, both results will be compared with each other.
In missile applications, there are many parameters to be optimized. One of these is diameter of seeker and the other one is counter-countermeasures. To decrease diameter of the seeker, there are some methods. One of them is light transfer to stable detector. In this technique, detector and objective stay stable out of gimbal mechanism and light is focused in front of the objective. Later virtual image is created at the detector. By this way, diameter of the objective and detector don’t affect diameter of the seeker and give more free space to put another detector for dual wavelength into system to be immune to countermeasures. In this study, dual mode system’s optical and mechanical designs have been made for mid-wave infra-red imaging and long-wave infra-red imaging. Optical designs performances have been illustrated in simulation results. Finally, conceptual design of dual mode seeker will be summarized.
Beam steering optical arrangement needs less volume envelope for same field of regard than other gimbal approaches. Both for imaging and four quadrant missile applications, volume is critical parameter limiting system performance. Therefore, a conceptual design of beam steering method has been focused on both imaging and four quadrant missiles. In this study; four different optical designs have been made by using both beam steering and regular method for mid-wave infra-red imaging and four quadrant systems. Optical designs performances have been illustrated in simulation results. By using manufactured Risley prisms, some experimental results are conducted to compare simulations results.
Drag force effect is an important aspect of range performance in missile applications. Depending on domes geometry, this effect can be decreased. Hemispherical domes have great image uniformity but more drag force has an effect on it. Four and eight faceted domes decrease drag force. However, environment reflections cause a noise in a system. Also depending on the faceted domes shape, sun and other sources in the environment are deformed in the face of them and these deformed objects result in a false target in an image. In this study; hemispherical, four faceted and eight faceted domes are compared with respect to drag force. Furthermore, images are captured by using these manufactured domes. To compare domes effects on images, scenarios are generated and automatic target acquisition algorithm is used.
Drag force effect is an important aspect of range performance in missile applications especially for long flight time. However, old fashioned gimbal approaches force to increase missile diameter. This increase has negative aspect of rising in both drag force and radar cross sectional area. A new gimbal approach was proposed recently. It uses a beam steering optical arrangement. Therefore, it needs less volume envelope for same field of regard and same optomechanical assembly than the old fashioned gimbal approaches. In addition to longer range performance achieved with same fuel in the new gimbal approach, this method provides smaller cross sectional area which can be more invisible in enemies’ radar. In this paper, the two gimbal approaches - the old fashioned one and the new one- are compared in order to decrease drag force and radar cross sectional area in missile application. In this study; missile parameters are assumed to generate gimbal and optical design parameters. Optical design is performed according to these missile criteria. Two gimbal configurations are designed with respect to modeled missile parameters. Also analyzes are performed to show decreased drag force and radar cross sectional area in the new approach for comparison.
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